Cheap and Free Will Writing in the UK — Every Option Compared

Free UK Will services — and what they actually cost

Before paying for a Will, it's worth knowing what's available for £0. The honest answer: several charity-backed schemes will draft a basic Will at no charge, but every one of them has a condition. Here's the full picture so you can choose with eyes open:

• Will Aid (November only). Participating solicitors waive their fee in exchange for a voluntary donation to a coalition of charities. The suggested donation is £120 for a Single Will and £200 for a pair of Mirror Wills — you can give less, or nothing, but that is the amount asked for. Note that the suggested donation is higher than ClearLegacy's £89 and £129. There is no age restriction. Bookings open in October and slots fill quickly.
• Free Wills Month (two windows a year). In 2026 the windows are 1 February–31 March and 1 September–31 October. Open to anyone aged 55 or over; if you are writing Mirror Wills as a couple, only one of you needs to be 55. Over 150 charity partners fund simple Wills through participating solicitors. Availability is limited and varies by region.
• National Free Wills Network. Around 300 charities subscribe, and roughly 877 law firms take part — so most people have a participating solicitor within a few miles. You request a pack through a charity you support, then book directly with a listed solicitor. You must make contact within 30 days of receiving the pack or the offer lapses.
• British Red Cross Free Will Service. Open to all ages, year-round. The Red Cross pays the solicitor's fee. The expectation — not a legal obligation, but the entire reason the scheme exists — is that you'll consider leaving the Red Cross a gift in the Will.
• Macmillan Cancer Support Free Will Service. Age 55+ only. Same model as the Red Cross: charity covers the fee, you're expected to consider a legacy gift to Macmillan.
• Octopus Legacy. £150 for a simple Single Will, £250 for a couple, from £450 with a trust (confirmed August 2026). Free wills now run only through time-limited charity campaigns and Free Wills Month windows, usually age-restricted. Reasonable if you want a video or in-person appointment — read the small print on data sharing.
• Bequest. Free basic Single Wills. Mirror Wills and more advanced features (trusts, complex distributions) cost extra.

Free Wills make sense if you fit the eligibility criteria, can wait for an availability window, and are happy with the charity legacy expectation. They don't make sense if you're under 55 and outside a live campaign product range, you want your Will usually drafted in 24 hours, or you'd rather pay a small one-off fee than be in a queue with a charity ask attached.

The honest summary: if you are 55 or over and one of the windows above is open, a genuinely free solicitor-drafted Will is available to you and you should take it. If you are under 55, if you need the Will this week, or if you would rather not have a charity legacy conversation attached to it, the free routes either don't apply or don't fit — and Will Aid's suggested donation of £120 is more than ClearLegacy charges anyway. That's the gap £89 fills.

What "cheap" actually means in UK Will writing

There's a real spread of Will-writing prices in the UK, but a legally valid, quality-checked Will starts from around £89. Below that, you're typically in DIY-kit territory — a paper template you fill in yourself with no oversight. DIY kits are cheap (£20–£40) but they fail in probate at a high rate, usually because of witnessing or signature errors that a review process would have caught.

Above £89, the price climbs sharply: £100 at Farewill, £150+ at Co-op Legal Services, £150–£400 at high-street solicitors. The legal product is the same — what's changing is the overhead structure of the provider.

Where DIY Wills go wrong

A WHSmith or Lawpack kit produces a legally valid Will if it's completed and witnessed correctly. The problem is "if". DIY Wills that fail in probate fail for four predictable reasons:

• Witnessing errors. The two witnesses must be present together when you sign, and watch each other sign. Neither can be a beneficiary or married to a beneficiary — anything they're left in the Will becomes void. The single most common DIY failure.
• Ambiguous wording. "I leave my house to my children" sounds clear, but if you have step-children, ex-partner's children, or unborn grandchildren the courts have to decide what you meant. A quality-checked will uses defined terms that pre-empt those arguments.
• Missing residual clause. If your Will lists specific gifts but doesn't say what happens to "everything else", whatever's left passes under the Intestacy Rules — defeating the entire point of writing a Will.
• Failure to update. A Will is automatically revoked by marriage in England and Wales. Many DIY Wills sit unmodified through a marriage, divorce, or new child and are no longer effective.

The £89 review process catches all four. Our structured review checks every draft before release — beneficiary details, executor appointments and guardian clauses are validated against your answers — and we provide signing instructions in plain English. The cost saving over a solicitor is in the production model, not in skipping the safety check.

How ClearLegacy can charge less

• No office overhead. We don't rent a Georgian building in a market town. Every solicitor meeting you attend in person is paying for that rent.
• Structured questions. A solicitor bills you for 45 minutes to walk through executor choices. Our online form covers the same ground in 15 minutes at your kitchen table.
• One product, done well. A high-street firm does conveyancing, divorce, commercial leases and Wills. We do Wills. Specialisation cuts cost.
• No subscription model. Some online providers add monthly storage fees that quietly double the cost over a few years. Our £89 is one-off.

Cheap doesn't mean low quality

Every ClearLegacy Will is checked by our automated review before it's released to you. Drafting from a structured questionnaire produces fewer errors than ad-hoc dictation. Plain-English signing instructions reduce execution mistakes. Cheap, in our context, means low overhead — not low quality.

What you don't get for £89

Honesty matters. There are things £89 doesn't cover:

• An in-person meeting with a solicitor (we are not solicitors)
• Active inheritance tax planning beyond what a Will can do
• Discretionary trusts for vulnerable beneficiaries
• Contested-estate advice or Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 work

If your estate genuinely needs any of those, a solicitor is the right choice and we'll say so during review.

Who an £89 Will is right for (and who should pay more)

A reviewed online Will at £89 is the right choice for most UK adults. It's not the right choice for every UK adult. Here's the honest segmentation:

£89 is right for you if:

• You're an individual or couple with a straightforward estate (home, savings, investments, named beneficiaries).
• Your total estate value is under £325,000 — or under £500,000 with a home you're leaving to direct descendants — meaning Inheritance Tax probably isn't a concern.
• You want to appoint executors, name guardians for minor children, distribute assets to specific people, and exclude others (former partners, estranged family). All standard Will territory.
• You're comfortable signing your own Will in front of two witnesses (we give you the instructions).

You should probably pay more (and use a solicitor) if:

• You own a business and need succession planning baked into the Will.
• Your estate is well above £500,000 and you need active IHT mitigation through discretionary trusts, life-interest trusts, or gifting strategies.
• You have property in multiple countries with different inheritance regimes.
• You expect the Will to be contested — a previous partner, estranged adult child, or disputed business interest.
• You have vulnerable beneficiaries (someone with addiction issues, financial naivety, or means-tested benefits) where a discretionary trust is the right vehicle.

We'll tell you which group you're in during the review. If the £89 product isn't right for your circumstances, we'll say so before you pay — not after.

ClearLegacy pricing — fixed fees, no surprises

How we compare on price

Prices are typical published rates at time of writing (May 2026). Sources: provider websites; typical published market rates for solicitor ranges.

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